


home

by silkspectre



Category: Ready or Not (2019)
Genre: Anxiety Attacks, F/M, Fluff, I should probably make this into a series, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, a year or two after the end of the movie, follows on from my last fic, like this is rlly fluffy, mental health, no beta babey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:55:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24815686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silkspectre/pseuds/silkspectre
Summary: Grace reflects on her fight so far.
Relationships: Daniel Le Domas/Grace Le Domas
Comments: 2
Kudos: 51





	home

Grace had tried on three different dresses before she settled on the loose, flowing cornflower blue maxi with strapped white sandals. In the mirror she double-checked her blonde curls, and her makeup. Everything was fine, Grace sucked in a breath and then exhaled slowly.

Daniel was sitting in the living room, flicking through TV channels absently. Grace moved up behind him, running her hands over his shoulders. His injury sometimes still flared up, she’d get him to have a bath with her and she’d sit behind him, massaging the scarred skin. He relaxed when her hands touched him, it made her smile.

‘’Ready to go?’’ He asked as he turned, catching sight of her dress and emitting a whistle. Grace laughed, snorting a little bit as she nodded.

They left the apartment, Grace waving to their elderly neighbour as she exited the elevator they were about to board. Their lives had become easy rhythm, comfortable monotony. They went to the same restaurant to eat, drove the same route to the therapist’s office and physiotherapist. Curled up together on the sofa watching mind-numbing garbage and sometimes eating garbage, too. It was what Grace had expected her life with Alex to be like, and she’d cried bitterly when she had realised during a therapy session that she could have never had this with Alex.

Alex hadn’t trusted her, and she could never trust him again after what had happened. Even if he had lived, Grace would have been waiting for the next betrayal for her whole life. And it wasn’t that she was even sad about the revelation – she was sad for the woman she had been who had held those hopes of a normal marriage with someone who was comfortable with killing her.

They were seated by the water, their usual spot. Daniel ordered her a glass of wine, and he settled for something he called ‘daring’ - a coke that wasn’t diet. Grace laughed at that joke every time, and she knew the waiter probably wanted to strangle her because it was so stupid. She made a mental note to tip them even more than usual.

‘’So, have you decided on where we’re moving? Or are we spinning a globe and seeing where it stops?’’ Daniel waited until after their first course to ask. Grace shrugged, sipping her wine and watching the waves slowly lap against the sand.

‘’I’m happy here.’’ She offered a lazy smile, slumping slightly against her chair. They had been on vacation, mostly to places with a nice beach. Those hypnotising waves, a shitty romance novel and Daniel usually swimming out there. She’d join him, but not before watching as he bobbed along, sometimes engaging in splash fights with the kids that swam past. And Grace felt her chest tighten and her eyes prick with tears. Her hand resting on her collar bone as she breathed. Hand clenching into a fist. Her mouth opening and closing like a dying fish. She waited until it passed, pushing the emotions down before she went out to the sea.

She wanted to be normal again.

It started then, her chest tightening. She shouldn’t have been thinking about it, and all of a sudden Daniel was kneeling beside her and she couldn’t stop her mouth from opening and closing like a guppy. The tears cutting through the makeup she had put on, Daniel’s hand taking the one that was clenching hard enough to leave crescent-shaped marks in the palms of her hands.

‘’Oh god. I’m ruining it again.’’ Grace heard her voice, it burst out of her in-between the harsh breathing. Daniel’s other hand rubbed her back, the waiter offered some water but he politely declined. They came here enough, the wait staff had seen this before. Just like they’d heard the jokes.

‘’You’re not ruining anything. Just breathe.’’ Daniel kissed her cheek. He’d gotten pretty good at reading her body language and pre-emptively trying to distract her. But sometimes he wasn’t as good as it as he thought he was.

It felt like a sick joke, that all of this had helped him to finally begin tackling his own alcoholism. Grace had supported him, and he supposed that kept her from focusing on her own thoughts for a while. But now he was doing better, and she had the weight of everything she had been trying to ignore crashing down on her shoulders.

Daniel asked for their meals to be packed away to go, and he tipped with a wad of hundred dollar bills. Grace calmed down, and he led her back to the car, brown paper bag in hand containing their dinner.

‘’I’m sorry.’’ Grace stared down at her hands as he drove them back home.

‘’Don’t be. I just want you to feel better.’’ Daniel took her hand, squeezing it while they were stopped at a red light.

‘’I’m sick of feeling like this.’’ Grace squeezed his hand back.

‘’You’ve kind of been through a lot.’’ Daniel kept driving, it wasn’t far. None of it was an inconvenience, he just wanted Grace to see that herself.

They headed back upstairs, Daniel gently nudging the food onto some fancy plates they’d picked out at some point during the last couple of months. Grace had changed and removed her makeup, curled up on the sofa. She watched him, and he could see how tired she was.

‘’Wait, hang on.’’ He set the food down on the coffee table, and Grace could hear him rifling through the kitchen. He emerged, candelabra in hand, with two white and one red candle. He lit each of them and set it on the coffee table, then handed Grace her plate.

‘’Not too cold?’’ He asked after a couple of bites.

‘’It’s good.’’ Grace smiled.

‘’I’m so glad to have you here, Grace. Anywhere, actually.’’ They’d never said ‘I love you’ – and as much as he liked the idea of it being because they expressed it with actions rather than words, he wanted to say it. As much as he had second-guessed and doubted himself and his own feelings. He didn’t want it to just be a rebound. He wanted this to be real. And he knew it, he wanted to be with Grace for the rest of his life.

‘’I feel like something is unresolved. Some part of me is still trapped in that house. Even though it burned down..I feel like I’m never going to escape. I’ll watch you doing something that just reminds me of how much of an idiot I was. And it isn’t your fault, that’s the thing. Something inside of me is just stuck. I’m stuck.’’ She’d finished, taking her plate into the kitchen. Daniel could hear her drop it into the dishwasher. He followed, doing the same. Grace held him, resting her head against his chest.

‘’I should call my therapist.’’ Grace murmured.

‘’You should, yeah.’’ He kissed the top of her head, moving to the bathroom. He could hear Grace talking on her phone before the running water drowned the noises out. He added some fancy oils to the bath, watching the purple lavender-scented tendrils spread through the water. It took about ten minutes for Grace to appear, he’d just gotten into the water.

‘’I’m having an extra session tomorrow. They might consider changing my meds again.’’ She undressed, and while her back was turned Daniel saw the deep cut from Grace squeezing through the hole in the fencing surrounding the Le Domas estate.

She sank in the water in front of him, and he swept the hair from her shoulder, sitting forward and kissing her shoulder then neck. She turned, moving slightly so she could kiss his lips softly. His arms wrapped around her, anchoring her to him. Grace broke the kiss after a few moments, brow furrowing before she smiled again. ‘’I love you.’’

‘’Wow, had to say it first, huh?’’ Daniel laugher, arms squeezing her slightly.

‘’Oh, I think it’s time one of us said it. You don’t have to-‘’ Grace started.

‘‘I love you too, Grace.’’ He stopped her, still smiling. And Grace remembered how he had looked before. Worn out, sad and lost. Now happy, holding her close when they had barely known each other before. Barely spoke. And now Grace was thinking in that moment that he was the family she had been searching for. The one she wanted to come home to, the one that felt like home.

‘’How about a massage?’’ She turned her back to him, shutting her eyes as his hands slowly ran up and down her back. Another kiss pressed to the back of her neck before he started massaging her shoulders.

Grace would fight for herself, and she would fight for her family.

**Author's Note:**

> I have been struggling lately. My life has revolved around mental illness for over a decade now. Writing this was a comfort, Grace’s anxiety attack is based on some of what I have experienced. I had one walking my dog the other day, it was hell.  
> I hope everyone is keeping safe, and I hope we’re all gonna make it through this.


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